The Speeding Bullets: 2010 Auto Club 500

This weekend has marked the one-year anniversary of The Speeding Bullets. It was all of you who encouraged me to transform a simple idea when I was pressed for time into my weekly racing blog...

• Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson on getting his 48th career victory only two races into the 2010 season. Usually, it is a couple more months before we see him in the winner's circle, but this year he got back in his old racing groove earlier than he ever has before. Kevin Harvick reeled him in and was in the position to make the race winning pass, so Johnson was really fortunate when Happy scraped the wall with a couple of laps left. This team's luck just never runs out, and that is a big reason why he is right where he wants to be on the quest for Sprint Cup number five...

• It is evident by being the points leader that Kevin Harvick has had the best car in both of the races run so far, but something always gets in the way between him and the checkered flag. Last week, it was choosing the wrong drafting partner late in the race and this week he struggled on pit road. He spun his tires various times when he exited his pit box, but what really came back to bite Harvick was having to start at the tail end of the longest line as a result of a speeding penalty. Hopefully, he will learn from these early season mistakes because they can be deadly later in the year when a lot more is on the line...

• After being latent for most of 2009, it looks as if Jeff Burton is finally coming back around. He was a contender week in and week out throughout the 2008 season and looks to be the same this year. Burton definitely had a car to win Sunday's race but just ran out of time to catch the leader as a result of being held up by Harvick in the closing laps. I always like seeing the veteran drivers having success and giving the young guns a run for their money...

• Joey Logano seems to have started getting the hang of things in his sophomore year. So far, the 19-year old hasn't finished out of the top 20 in either race and earned himself a top five this weekend. Logano is beginning to evolve into the great racer everyone expects him to be. Some fans assumed he would grasp Cup racing right from the get go, but even the most talented of racers still have a steep learning curve to work their way through. Joey's next goal should be to make the Chase which will require him to overcome the struggles he has had with consistency...
  

• How long is it going to take NASCAR to realize that February is not a good time to go to California??? Every year, rain affects the race one way or another whether it is merely just a five minute shower or a torrential downpour that makes water seep through cracks on the track. My advice is to switch the spring races here and at Phoenix which would be a win-win situation for both venues. I did find it pretty entertaining, though, to watch Darrell Waltrip try to play weather god by telling the rain where to go. He just seems to act dumber by the week...
  

That's all from Fontana. I thought that the racing was pretty good despite all of the hard criticism about it. Now we're on to Las Vegas for a weekend of rolling the dice in Sin City...

The Speeding Bullets: 2010 Daytona 500

A race that was supposed to be run in complete daylight turns into a marathon event ending under the lights. Hope you enjoy the read...

• Congratulations to Jamie McMurray on winning his first ever Daytona 500. He aligned himself with the right person in the right place and made his move at the right time when the race came down to its final laps. Greg Biffle gave McMurray the push he needed to propel himself to the checkered flag, a perfect example of the benefit of being on good terms with your old teammates. Jamie's tears in victory lane show just how much winning the Great American Race means to a driver and how blessed he feels to achieve his lifelong dream. It's amazing how changing teams from one year to the next can totally turn around a man's racing career... 

• Dale Earnhardt, Jr. coming from tenth to second in the final lap almost pulled off what Kevin Harvick did three years back. I really didn't expect him to be there at the end because he hasn't had too much success at Daytona in the past couple of years. The runner-up finish will help get his team and all of Junior Nation reenergized for the 2010 season, along with his optimistic attitude in the pre-race segment with Jeff Hammond. We can't get too excited about it, but hopefully it will lead to a victory somewhere not too far down the road. An Earnhardt win is the medicine the sport needs to boost ratings, ticket sales, and excitement among fans...
  

• Kevin Harvick had the best car during the race and throughout all of Speedweeks, but a strategic error probably ended up costing him the victory. He made the right move by lining up on the inside where his car was the best. Where he went wrong, though, was on the backstretch, choosing to stay close to the yellow line instead of pulling up in front of McMurray. I am not saying doing that would have guaranteed him the win, but it would have put him in a much better position than the one he was in at the time because the other lane was moving much faster. In spite of this mistake, Harvick proved on Sunday that he truly has a racer's heart. Only a true racer would want to go ahead and finish the Daytona 500 while in the lead at the second red flag...
  

• Even though Scott Speed ended up finishing 19th, I have to tip my hat to him for making such a bold move. He knew that it was virtually impossible for him to win the race unless he stayed out on the final pit stop when everyone else either topped off on fuel or got a new set of tires. Speed actually did hold his ground for a lot longer than anyone expected him to, and for a moment I thought he might possibly pull it off. But as had been the case all day, four tires was the way to go on every pit stop with the condition the track was in throughout the entire race...
  

• Sorry Carl Edwards, but after all of Sunday's mayhem, I think that Daytona is going to have to be repaved. At first, most of us thought that repairing one pothole would be no problem, but we were all proven wrong because of its location in a spot where every car happens to run over it at 190 mph. When the hole broke open a second time, I started to wonder if the race was a done deal. That's why I have to applaud NASCAR for sticking it out and ending the day with a green flag finish even after the two and a half hour delay. It would have been really easy for them to call the race and declare Harvick the winner, but they wanted to make things right after the big disappointment still lingering in fans' minds from last year's Great American Race...
  

That's all from Daytona and 2010 Speedweeks. Next week is when the regular part of the season really begins out west in Fontana, California. It will be interesting to see RCR and Roush-Fenway Racing go head to head, two organizations that have looked on the bright side so far after both having a rough 2009...

The Speeding Bullets: 2010 Budweiser Shootout

A new year calls for a new logo and a new look to The Speeding Bullets. Hope you enjoy the read...

• Congratulations to Kevin Harvick for winning the event a second straight year. It's not a points victory like he has been searching for since the 2007 Daytona 500, but it's a necessary momentum burst that will hopefully help them end the three year drought. Harvick is going to get the chance to rewrite his own record book from last year and additionally end the recent curse of the shootout winner going winless throughout the rest of the season. The question is whether he will be able to capitalize on it...
  

• I have to say after watching the race that so far I am pleased with the changes NASCAR has made. The drivers felt comfortable to make daring maneuvers that they wouldn't attempt otherwise because of being rained on with fines and penalties. The race-ending crash started by Jeff Gordon served as a perfect example of this. Now, if they could just allow multiple attempts at a Green-White-Checkered finish to ensure the fans get every penny out of their hard-earned money...

• Jimmie Johnson, feeling nervous prior to the race??? Not too sure if I'm buying that one. For all of you Johnson haters out there, I think your wish may be granted of him not winning number five since he will be a new father by season end. Just look at how much Jeff Gordon changed when he became one as well. There's a good chance that the distraction will affect Jimmie when it comes Chase time...

• Mark Martin sure sent Kurt Busch on a wild ride through the infield and up into the outside wall, but it was good to see he manned up about it in the end. I have a feeling that Martin realized over the offseason that his career is starting to tick away by the race, and as a result he has decided to become more aggressive about trying to win as many of them as he can. Sunday will be the best shot other than a few years ago he has ever had at winning the Great American Race. It will be interesting to see if he is able to achieve his lifelong dream...

• It looks as if FOX might have decided to cover up the gopher hole after all of the criticism received from last season. Maybe they thought that was one of the reasons their ratings have drastically started dropping. Now I did see Digger appear on the sponsor banner right after a commercial break, but for the first time since who knows when there was no mention of him at all...
  

Very good first race to start out the 2010 season and the new decade of stock car racing. Hopefully, the Daytona 500 will be even better, and NASCAR will start to climb out of the trench they have buried themselves in over the past few seasons...

Budweiser Shootout Preview

Congratulations, you have successfully made it through another NASCAR offseason (if we can even call it much of an offseason at all). It is the day before the Bud Shootout, the opening event of the 2010 season. It is the time of the year when race fans trash all of their bad memories from last season and start fresh again hoping that their driver has a better one.

The Bud Shootout is the event that sets the tone for the rest of the Speedweeks festivities. It separates the haves from the have-nots and gives you a pretty good idea of how various guys are going to fare in the Great American Race. And this time around, it will test how effective the car and bump-drafting changes are that NASCAR made during the break.

This event is the perfect opportunity for drivers to step up who haven't made a lot of noise lately. In the past couple of years, guys who haven't visited victory lane at all in the previous season are actually the ones who have the best odds to win. Just ask Kevin Harvick, last year's winner, or even Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who won it two years back. But if you do manage to win the Bud Shootout, don't expect to go on and win the Daytona 500. That has only happened five times, last in 1997 by Jeff Gordon.

The starting lineup ranges from four-time champion Jimmie Johnson to good ole Derrick Cope who will be lucky to even made ten circuits around the 2.5 mile track. But you can all relax because Robby Gordon didn't make the cut with the new rule changes. He won't be able to cause a big multi-car pileup like he did last year.

So who's going to win it??? I'm going to put my money on Denny Hamlin taking the checkers. He probably really wants to put shame to all those people who called him an idiot for injuring his knee while playing basketball...